Despite many attempts, Iustus's powers didn't manifest, it was clearly visible for Gregory that he overflowed with mana, so much so that it pretty much formed a natural barrier around him but the young man couldn't will his vast powers to do anything.
There must have been some kind of trigger last time was what Gregory had in mind or perhaps he just needed more time to get accustomed to his powers.
'How cliche for the hero to be unable to use his powers, will they show up if he gets beaten up too?' he wondered as they both walked through a lush forest, the trees had white barks and dark blue leaves that seemed to never fall as none of them were to be seen laying around.
They emitted quite a bit of mana by themselves, Gregory had chosen to go through so that Iustus's mana wouldn't be noticeable by anything unwanted, it was slower than going through a main road and it made them take a detour but it was preferable to having any sin or ally of theirs show up.
"What are the people we are going to meet be like?" asked the hero as he looked around the calm forest in worry, in his mind such places were where only adventurers went, where you could run into a monster at any time.
"No idea, I just know some of our objectives align and frankly, that is enough to call them ally in my opinion" flatly responded Gregory, staying on his guard, he knew what Occult looked like but that was it, he didn't know what the other lesser sins could look like, for all he knew one could just be invisible or be able to disguise.
'How do I know what Occult look like anyways? Ah yes, I was told by... By who?'
"Hey, Iustus"
"Do you remember meeting someone else beside me?" asked Gregory, feeling a cold sweat run across his back.
"Huh? Well... I am sure someone was there or was there? I'm feeling a bit lightheaded all of a sudden..." the young hero grasped his head in wonder.
"No need to try too hard, if you can't remember, you can't" he turned to Iustus for a moment before looking straight ahead again.
He felt like heart flew out of his chest as he saw something standing in the way before heaving a sigh of relief.
'A sheep? What is it doing here? Are we near a farm or something?'
'The mana from the trees is messing with my perception... I didn't notice it at all' that's what he thought but he was still a bit suspicious.
The more he looked at this sheep the more he felt like he was looking at a taxidermy of one, it eyes lacked any life and even if it moved a bit, its movements weren't normal by any means.
"Be careful-" he slightly glanced over his shoulder only to see another anomaly a few meters away behind them.
A skeleton just standing there, without any sockets, he didn't have any of the holes a skull would normally have other than his jaw with was closed at the moment, his fingers seemed to have been melted together and so were his toes, it took a slow step forward, barely moving anything other than his legs as he took one step at a time.
It was like a puppet that was only being controlled to move and nothing else.
The undead radiated some sort of holy energy but something about it was sickening.
He instantly drew his sword and grabbed Iustus, pulling them to the side, away from the two bizarre figures, while doing so, he was able to take a look at the sides of the so called sheep, he could see the tail of a wolf that had been chopped off near the base, bits of grey fur that clearly didn't belong to a sheep and most importantly, humans arms that had been conpletely burned, hugging the body of the sheep, hidden from the front by wool.
The sight was gruesome and definitely indicated that this was anything but a nice little sheep that had gotten lost.
It's empty eyes morphed into that of the predator it shared some of its body with has his face contorted, slightly growing his length and pushing some teeth out to replace them with fangs, causing blood to trickle and stain the white wool red.
"Baaaaa~ I guess my impression of a sheep is not quite good enough heh?" spoke the abomination in a deep and devilish voice.
'Is that what people envision when they talk about the antichrist? What the hell?' thought the otherworlder as the two peculiar beings walked closer to one another, standing right in front of the two humans.
"Let's get this out of the way, hand over the hero or better yet, kill him on the spot and we'll let you live to see another day, oh, my apologies, I almost forgot, Baaaaa" spoke the sheep with a sick grin on his face.
"It's very nice of you to offer me that but why don't you introduce yourselves first?" asked Gregory with a wry smile, taking a few step back as he pushed Iustus behind him.
"You two are sins right?" he added afterwards.
"Huh, how do you kno-" started saying the boy.
"I have been up close with a cardinal sin, I can recognise the vibe a sin gives off and these two reek of it"
"Did you just say that I reeked? I'll have you know that I cannot sweat, everything was burned off when I was put on the stake and my fellow right here, I don't think I have to spell it out"
"But you truly insist, I am Euthanasia and He is Ingratitude, let's not waste time by explaining anything more, make your decision unwanted!"
"Ahem... Baaa"
"If you can't kill him yourself, we'll do it for you"
Gregory wasn't certain what to do here, he was faced with two immensely powerful beings whose abilities he didn't know, what kind of powers would Euthanasia and Ingratitude have? Those seemed like concepts that weren't very applicable to combat...
He stayed silent as the two sins stood still, they wouldn't wait infinitely but Gregory should have some time to think about something.
He brought his left hand behind his back, grabbing Iustus's wrist while sheathing his blade back in, making the sheep nod his head.
"That's a good choice-" he was quickly silenced however as Gregory cast two fairly simple spell on top of one another, one was a strong gust of wind aimed at the two sins and the other, just some fire, but by compressing both together, it turned the relatively harmless spells into something akin to an explosion, with fed on the fire susceptible mana of the nearby trees to grow even stronger.
A loud baa sounded from beyond the explosion but once the most intense of the smoke cleared up, the two sins were enclosed inside of a barrier.
"Good grief Ingratitude, but it seems like they are gone, it appears like that otherworlder is more ressourceful than expected but I guess it was to be expected of one of Lust's preys"
"..."
"Will you speak for once? I know that mouth isn't decorative!"
"..."
"Fine, keep your thoughts to yourself, it's a shame I wasn't able to get any direct contact with either of them but I did manage to get something on both and surely, he had enough time to do his thing" commented Euthanasia as the other kept silent.
"Why do I even bother speaking with you? Anyhow, you can release your barrier, I can get through some flames, my resistance to fire high enough for that"
"..."
"..."
"I told you to release goddamnit! I know you can hear through mana! You think you're very funny huh?!"
"..."
"BAAAAAA!"